A comprehensive study shows Tehran is allocating an eye-opening $15-20 billion to finance the ongoing carnage in Syria, with at least $1 billion set aside only for proxy militia salaries. IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Suleimani also pours billions into Iraq to provide for Shiite militias busy instigating sectarian hatred and violence. Another $1 billion is channeled to the Lebanese Hezbollah and $1.3 billion to Hamas.

Companies in the West see it in their interest to launch direct transactions with Iran’s private sector. What needs comprehension is the fact that behind the curtain of official banks and firms in Iran is actually an IRGC-controlled institution network.

Unfortunately, Iran’s economy today is managed by the same figures busy repressing the Iranian people, exporting extremism and terrorism, and strongly advocating a fundamentalist seeking to wreak havoc in the West.

Doing business with Iran is part in parcel with mingling with the repressive dictator, Khamenei, and his IRGC.

There is a unique opportunity before the Trump Administration to deprive the IRGC of its resources, limit its profit-making and operations-funding terrorism by blacklisting the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization. Such an important strategic initiative also benefits from hard-to-find bipartisan support in Congress.